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Jammu and Kashmir may have its first woman chief minister soon if everything goes as planned. Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed has sent clear signals that he wants to yield place to his daughter Mehbooba Mufti and it is only a question of time though there are speculations that it may perhaps be by January if not sooner. It is known that Mufti is not keeping good health and wants to hand over the baton to his daughter. He had declared recently, 'She is mature enough to handle responsibilities. It is a democracy. She works more than I do in addressing problems of the people on the ground.'

In this age of hast and hurry, even intellectuals rush with their opinions without verification of facts underneath. Nasreen, Bangladesh author always in thickets of controversies rushed with the opinion that Aamir Khan could earn Rs. 300 crore from his film PK only in India. He would have been done to death for making such a film in Pakistan or Bangladesh. Her opinion like of many intellectuals compartmentalizes humans in blocks of their religion and not by their talent. She could not appreciate talents and courage of Aamir Khan to challenge a pretender who let it be believed that he had monopoly rights over the concept of god while making the film.

With Lalu Yadav’s endorsement the Mahagathbandhan went to the Bihar Assembly polls with the face of Nitish Kumar as the new assurance for a resurgent Bihar. Though Lalu played the crucial role in providing a caste orientation to the Mahagathbandhan, getting this massive mandate was absolutely impossible without Nitish being the mascot.

BHOPAL: The victory of Congress candidate Kantilal Bhuria from Ratlam Parliamentary constituency is being regarded as a personal setback for Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan. The bye-election was caused by the death of BJP MP Dilip Singh Bhuria, whose daughter Nirmal Bhuria was sponsored as the BJP candidate.

It is amazing that going into country after country, Prime Minister Narendra Modi talks of an India in 'transformation' under him, without any plan or time-line, thereby underlining paucity in his thinking beyond bland statements of making it easier and easier to do business but unfailingly inviting investors of the West and East to come, produce and make fortunes. All this may prove illusory over time.

A powerful leftist political surge is being witnessed in the recent Parliamentary elections of the European countries with Portugal being the latest to have a left coalition government after the centre right President Anibal Silva was forced to invite on November 24 the leader of the Portuguese Socialist Party Antonio Da Costa to form the coalition government along with the Left block and the Portuguese Communist Party. In October 4 general elections, the ruling Social Democratic Party led by the Prime Minister Pedro Coelho lost majority but he was allowed to form the Government though the Socialist Party came to an understanding with the Left block and the Communist Party to have an anti-austerity coalition government. The Left coalition had 122 seats as against 107 seats secured by the ruling combination in the 230 member house. President Silva tried his best to persuade the Socialists not to have truck with the communists but he failed and the Coelho government was defeated in the new Parliament by the combined strength of the left coalition. There was no alternative for President Silva other than inviting Costa to form the new government.

The Prime Minister Narendra Modi is back to India after attending the Asean conference in Malaysia at observer and also two day visit to Singapore. He went though the usual routines that he follows on his visits to other countries. He never misses the opportunity to address the local Indian community in he visits. Observers will have to wait for results to flow in of his visits. The official media, Door Darshan accompanies on his foreign visits has to and does also efficiently present one sided picture. Only time will tell the real story.

KOLKATA: It is tempting to compare the state assembly elections in Bihar with the parliamentary elections in neighbouring Myanmar. In both the polls the ruling parties were decimated. Coincidentally, the Myanmar polls were held on November 8, the same day that the Bihar poll results were announced.

It seems that a 14 per cent service tax is not enough for the government to provide a minimum service to keep the country clean. And, hence is the new ‘Swachh Bharat’ cess of 0.5 per cent over and above the service tax. Few will disagree that the services provided by the India government to its people are little if compared with those by other nine countries above India in terms of normal GDP in US dollars. This is despite the fact that India boasts among the highest national service tax regimes in most major economies. The worst still is the end-of-the-year extra-budgetary imposition of service tax or cess from Mid-November to ostensibly keep the country clean (Swachh Bharat) is meant to collect Rs. 3,800 crore or more in just 4.5 remaining months of the current financial year.

India's grim exports scenario this financial year has at last woken up the government from tis slumber and rightly announced three per cent interest subsidy. With India's exports declining for the eleventh month running in October and no immediate recovery visible in the near future, the government decided to give a leg up to this declining exports by announcing the interest subsidy for five years providing that much head room for exporters to plan their strategy. This cheaper credit under the interest equalisation scheme, approved by the cabinet committee on economic affairs on Thursday will be available from April one this year for both pre and post shipment rupee export credit.